Saturday, November 08, 2008

When Was The Last Time?

I've been chewing on a quote for about a week now. I haven't been able to shake it. We were worshipping at Cleddie Keith's church in Florence, Kentucky last Friday and as we entered a time of corporate worship he said, "When was the last time you did something for the first time?" Wow!

Do you remember the first time you...stood to sing?clapped to a holy beat?raised your hands to the Lord?jumped before the Lord because you couldn't contain it?(do I dare say) danced?

I realized as I stood there, preparing to enter into worship, that it had indeed been some time since I had stepped outside my comfort zone and found a fresh expression to worship my innovative God. If I can be honest, in that moment I wanted to do something new for the Lord but my human nature has always been to stick with what is comfortable, to flow with the familiar. I can think back to many moments in worship where my inner man wanted to jump for joy or take off running because I was about to explode with excitement but the dignified outer man said, "Absolutely not! That kind of expression will verify to the world that you're indeed cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." Unfortunately, I think most of the time we let our dignified and sinful flesh win out in those moments.

The thing I love about David, and more importantly, what I think God loved about David was that he cared little about being dignified. His focus was on God and expressing his passion any way he could. In fact, the time he was busted for jumping and dancing before the Lord through the city streets, he told his wife Michal that it was only going to get worse. He was a worshipper and he was crazy for the Lord.

Here's something to chew on as you prepare to enter the house of the Lord tomorrow. When was the last timeyou did something for the first time?"